


ready to be bolder

by louminosity



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dorcas Meadowes Lives, Established Relationship, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, LGBTQ Character of Color, Marlene McKinnon Lives, Mentions of Blood, Minor Injuries, Moving In Together, Multi, Podcast: Fanatical Fics and Where to Find Them, Polyamory, black and nonbinary dorcas, filipino emmeline, takes place post-ootp? idk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 11:33:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29471019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/louminosity/pseuds/louminosity
Summary: With the sound of the waves roaring in her ears and the adrenaline coursing in her veins, she feels... nothing.
Relationships: Dorcas Meadowes/Emmeline Vance, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes/Emmeline Vance, Marlene McKinnon/Emmeline Vance
Kudos: 3
Collections: Fanatical Fics’s New Year’s Competition 2021





	ready to be bolder

**Author's Note:**

> hello! back yet again for another fanatical fics discord writing competition! and before you ask, was my wanting to make emmeline filipino entirely self-indulgent? ...yes, yes it was.
> 
> hope you enjoy it!
> 
> title insp: home - gabrielle aplin

Emmeline digs her feet into the dense sand, closes her eyes, and breathes in the salty air. This is the first time she’s flown to their new house by herself. And it will _not_ be the last, she hopes. She clutches her broom tightly for a moment before letting it go. She drops her shoes as well, which she took off as soon as she landed. Her broom hovers over the sand while her shoes unceremoniously plop on the ground. Loose tendrils of her thick, black hair escape the bun she had put together that morning. With the sound of the waves roaring in her ears and the adrenaline coursing in her veins, she feels... _nothing._

An arm wraps around her waist, grounding her. She opens her eyes to see Dorcas hook their chin on her shoulder. Some of their locs brush her face as they give her a kiss on the cheek. 

“Welcome, love. Happy New Year. How was the mission?” Dorcas murmurs.

“The muggle minister is safe,” she states dully and leaves it at that. 

Dorcas’ eyes narrow slightly before their face clears. They say, “I’m glad you’re here now. Marlene’s prepping dinner.”

Emmeline raises an eyebrow. “You let her near the oven?”

Dorcas huffs. “I’m going to ignore the insinuation that I _let_ Marlene do anything and say… yes, unfortunately.”

Emmeline smiles at Dorcas bemusedly. “What’s she attempting to make?”

“Nothing too complicated, just some fish she caught earlier today.”

“Okay, that’s not too bad… wait. Since when does she know how to fish?”

“She doesn’t. She caught the fish in the market.”

“That… raises more questions.”

“Well, that’s what she told me.” 

“Please tell me it’s already been filleted.”

“It might be by the time we get back to the house?”

“Let’s save our girl, then.” Emmeline hooks an arm around theirs, summons her broom to her hand, and reaches down to grab her shoes. She grimaces at the ache flaring up her sides now that her adrenaline is wearing off. Unsurprisingly, Dorcas’ attention clocks that and Emmeline can practically see the healer wheels turning in their head as their eyes flit all over her body. To Emmeline’s surprise, they don’t say more on it and instead they reach down to grab her shoes. They make their way to what seems to be a plain field flanked by trees. Dorcas murmurs, “ _The lovers can be found underneath the trees moved by the sea breeze.”_

Before their eyes, fog clears from the entrance and a small cottage materializes. They leave their shoes outside and as they walk in, it’s clear Dorcas and Marlene had only brought items they couldn’t bear to leave behind in the wake of the fire that destroyed their last safehome. Emmeline had spent months away running various missions for the Order, including the one she just came from. She smiles at the little bunches of grapes hanging from the windows for the new year. They walk into the kitchen where Marlene looks like she’s shearing fish instead of filleting it. There’s a substantial amount of blood on the cutting board and apron she has on. Thankfully, the blood doesn’t reach much farther than that, leaving the other things on the counter clean: washed vegetables, a loaf of bread, and a bowl of twelve round fruits.

“Marlene, look who decided to join us,” Dorcas says warmly. Marlene looks up, blowing some curls out of her face.

Her face lights up and Dorcas reminds her, “Knife down, Marlene.” 

Marlene rolls her eyes and makes a big show of putting down the knife, cleaning up her hands, and taking off her apron before pulling Emmeline into a hug. Emmeline buries her face in the crook of Marlene’s neck, smelling the faint vestiges of her citrus perfume. As they let go, Emmeline once again winces. Marlene gently wrestles her broom from her grasp and says, “I’ll take care of this, while Dorcas takes care of you.” She kisses the side of Emmeline’s head.

Emmeline quickly says, “Please be gentle. I just polished it last week and—!”

Marlene laughs. “Give me a little credit, Em. Even after all this time, I know your broom care regimen almost as well as you do,” she says fondly as she walks out the room.

“Yes, but don’t forget—” Emmeline moves to catch up, but Dorcas’ hand tightens on her shoulder. 

“Not so fast, speed racer,” Dorcas says, their lips quirked in amusement.

Emmeline groans. “I should have never shown you or Marlene muggle television.”

“You need to relax. Marlene knows what to do. Come on, we unpacked all the healing necessities before you got here. Also, you don’t know your way around the house yet.” 

They steer her into a cot in the next room. They point at it and Emmeline dutifully sits down, if a bit petulantly. “It’s not _that_ big of a house. I’m sure I could find my way around,” she says.

“You really want to test that right now?” Dorcas asks.

“No… though it makes me wonder what would happen if you weren’t there to constantly play peacemaker.”

Dorcas snorts. “You and Marlene would have constantly been at each other’s throats and burned everything to the ground, including yourselves.” 

“Yes, but there would have been some incredible sex before we did each other in.”

“Having been on the receiving end, I won’t disagree with that. Now, you know the drill. Certain healing spells work better with wand to skin contact. Shirt off.”

Emmeline raises her eyebrows suggestively. “You know what I mean,” Dorcas says, exasperated. Emmeline undresses but another ache ripples through her and she clutches the cot. Dorcas’ eyebrows furrow concernedly. With their wand gently touching Emmeline’s shoulder, they mutter a diagnostic spell and a shimmery orb encases Emmeline’s body and lights up red along Emmeline’s sides, her collarbone, and her knees before it dissipates. 

“Merlin and Morgana,” Dorcas whispers. 

“It feels better than it looks?” Emmeline says weakly. 

Dorcas hands her an icy blue potion and dryly responds, “I highly doubt that.” At the same time, Marlene walks in and says, “If that didn’t work on us when you fell off your broom during fourth year, what makes you think it’ll work now?”

Emmeline takes a swig of the potion without complaint. Her sides seize up as if she was wrapped in ice and then she feels the pain dull. Dorcas and Marlene exchange a concerned look. “What happened, Em?” Marlene asks softly.

Emmeline’s eyes stare out the window. “We set up a connection between Podmore’s Sneakoscope and a Dark Detector we installed in the muggle minister’s front steps. It didn’t go off before we went on our rounds, so we thought, _Oh, just a regular patrol_. And for the most part, it was. Nothing out of the ordinary. Although there was an old lady who—” 

“Em.”

“Right. We round the corner when the Sneakoscope goes off. Podmore disabled the sound, but it was too late. Thankfully, the minister was preoccupied elsewhere. Podmore and I were able to hold off the Death Eaters from entering but not before one of them sent a blasting curse our way. Sturgis…” Her voice shakes. “I barely got him to St. Mungo’s in time. He lost _so much blood._ I was the lucky one. There was a solid moment where I thought I wasn’t. I felt so helpless.” She blinks rapidly, heaves a heavy sigh, and looks up. Marlene and Dorcas’ soft expressions turn into something Emmeline hasn’t seen on their faces since the early days of the war. 

“It’s finally time for us to come out of the woodworks then,” Marlene says, barest hint of steel coating her words. 

“What? No. It’s much safer here. You can’t be serious,” Emmeline pleads.

Marlene scoffs but squeezes Emmeline’s hand. “Of course not. I’m not the one stuck in a hell of a childhood home, pining for his best friend.”

Dorcas gently cups Emmeline’s face and says, “She’s right. Being safe is all well and good, but it’s getting worse. You’ve seen it yourself. We’ve spent too long running away keeping ourselves safe. Far too long. We were _children_ when we were first asked to fight. I cannot let that happen to more children. I cannot stand aside _another_ year while my loved ones fight and get _hurt_ —” They suck in a shaky breath and continue, “I refuse to stand aside any longer when I can _do_ something. You know better than to ask that of us.”

Emmeline looks around. She hasn’t seen the entire house, yet she knows it’s just as bare as this room, like all the safehouses before it. And she wants more than that. She’s tired of constantly moving, tired of constantly looking over her shoulder, tired of keeping them a secret. Despite the icy healing potion in her body, there’s a fire within her that she’s ready to unleash. “I do. And yes, let’s show them what we’re _all_ capable of.” 


End file.
